Ill-Defined Engineering Problem Solving Empirical Study

Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Design Research and Education (ICADRE14)

Year: 2014
Editor: Edwin Koh, Victor Shim, Tan Woei Wan, Ian Gibson, Andi S. Putra
Author: Yan, Yanliuxing; Jiang , Pingfei; Squires, Amanda; Childs, Peter R N
Institution: [1] Imperial College London, UK, [2] Royal Albert Hall, Kingsington Gore, UK
Section: Creativity and Innovation
Page(s): 144-149
DOI number: 10.3850/978-981-09-1348-9_024
ISBN: 978-981-09-1348-9

Abstract

Engineering designers often tackle ill-defined engineering problems with limited information and uncertainty, which makes the problem identification and thereby conceiving solutions difficult. We therfore advocate the adoption of a combined approach which integrates Issue Based Information System (IBIS) and creativity tools to facilitate the exploration of both the problem space and solution space concurrently. This is demonstrated in a case study. Based on positive results, albeit limited in scope, we suggest applying this approach in future problem solving although more emprical studies will be needed to consolidate its effectiveness.

Keywords: Creativity and Innovation